Self-catering in New York?

I would like to visit NYC with my husband in the spring. It will be my first time, his second time. I would prefer to rent an apartment/hotel apartment. Can anyone recommend anywhere? I dont know the areas in NY but somewhere not too far from all the sights? Is Brooklyn far out? (I cant believe how expensive the hotels are, even basic ones).

We stayed in a self catering holiday apartment (someone's flat that they moved out of for a few days) in the a East Village. Can't remember the details of the flat, but the area was good. Manhattan. But quirky/hippy/cool - but not as pricey as Greenwich Village itself. Good bars and restaurants around. Subway into central Manhattan was easy enough.

We stayed in a hotel that was like studio apartments - living room/ bedroom, kitchen area and bathroom - it was really spacious and quite posh (by my standards!).I think it was called Affinia 50. It was near Saks fifth avenue and we got a decent deal booking it combined with the flight.

NYC is expensive because there is high demand for accommodation, many people from all over the world visit NYC and throughout the year too.

Do not book an apartment under any circumstances; practically all short term lets under 30 days in the five boroughs are illegal and many are outright scams. You will not be able to tell if it is a scam just by looking at the pictures and reading the descriptions on travel based websites offering accommodation; those websites do not check the veracity of such listings. Indeed people have turned up and have been told that the apartment they have rented does not exist!. Do not let yourself be potentially scammed by such sites; it will be a most expensive lesson for you.

You need to look at hotels and suite based hotels. All bookings are basically room only although some like the Salisbury House on W57th Street do include breakfast as part of their room rate. Some hotels also charge a small fortune for eating breakfast so many people eat away from the hotels; there are plenty of places to eat in NYC and you will not go hungry.

I have family who work between the UN in Geneva and NYC and they always stay in short term apartments there, probably for 1 to 4 weeks at a time.. Google search for UN apartments and if it doesn't coincide with a UN conference you will maybe find something easily.